This one is in Izaya's POV since the last one was in Shizuo's...I'm not sure if I'm going to alternate point's of view every chapter yet. It usually depends on the word count. I aim for between 5k or 6k words per chapter. (This one is only a little over 4k, gomen).
Without further ado, enjoy the update!
Izaya
Slowly, I began to feel myself drifting out of a twilight dream-state, entering into a new subsequence of a full-force migraine. My skull was pounding even before I had a chance to open my eyes; to what I was sure were the glaring lights that awaited me. Not only that, but I had an inescapable brainfreeze.
Out of my grainy subconscious, I clumsily drew a hand to my face to brush away whatever nuisance was giving me frostbite, however the immediate flare of pain that came with it was enough to bring me completely awake.
"Ugh."
I tossed the ice pack as far away as I could manage from my lying position, cupping my forehead to help warm the numbing sensation. To my further solace, the natural heat radiating from my palm felt like I had just splayed my hand on a lit stove, even at the slightest of touches. I groaned defeatedly, and let my hand fall back to my side, grumbling curses under my breath.
My bleary eyes opened to find the ceiling fan oscillating above where I had been resting for who knew how long. It's quick cycling was enough to trigger another convulsion of dizziness, and my eyes squeezed shut before my head had the chance to spin off completely. I decided that keeping my eyes shut would be my best option if I wanted to figure out just how I got into this situation. The last thing I could coherently remember was being surrounded by a group of people. Loud people.
The thought of excessive noise made me cringe, but I pushed past it in order to conquer my delima.
As I tried to recollect the events that must have led me to this circumstance, I recalled the elevator scene; Erika's face flashed through my memory, and I remember nearly running into her on the way up to the twelfth floor. Shizuo was with me no doubt...In fact, I was beginning to retain clearly, just how obnoxiously the blonde had stormed out of the elevator down the hall and inconsiderately slamming the door in my
Ah ha…
So that's how it happened. That would explain the tight knot screaming agony across my face. No doubt his pea-sized brain left me with nothing but that stupid block of ice on my forehead too.
"Stupid Shizu-chan…" I muttered flatly to no one other than myself.
In that moment, I felt a shift by my side and I tensed. My eyes trailed cautiously down the white comforter to where the exact mop of blonde himself sat resting, head down on the bedside.
Of course he was there.
I let out an irritable sigh, knowing my situation could not possibly get any worse.
Though, as if on cue, a tired eye that wasn't being completely covered by the mess of golden locks, fluttered open. I looked down at him in distaste, reaching my limit of annoyance by his presence.
"Good morning, sunshine," I sneered irritably, nudging the thickness of his skull with my extended knee.
"Ugh," he snarled, rolling his head back over to sleep as soon as he met my gaze.
"So," I began curtly, to initiate an inevitable conversation, despite his poor attempts at relinquishing out of it.
He sighed loudly with his head buried in his arms, and I heard a muffled, unenthused, "what?"
"What do you saaaaay?" I elongated the vowel like an impatient parent, for the apology of some bratty kid who had just thrown the world's biggest temper tantrum in the supermarket.
He sat up with a genuinely confused and exhausted look on his face. Clearly he was not up to date on common courtesy when someone slams their door into someone else's face.
"Well? Aren't you going to apologize for your actions?" I scolded, as if I were talking to a child.
Oh wait, I was.
He let out an exaggerated sigh. "I'm sorry. There, happy?"
"Not really, but it's a start," I said, heaving myself into a somewhat upright position, wincing as blood started to distribute itself from my head to my limbs. "Now I'm assuming you called Shinra, correct? Where is my medicine?" I demanded, knowing that reprimanding him anymore would go nowhere.
I had come to the conclusion that I must be in Shinra's room, given that the blonde would be too afraid of being questioned by outside authorities.
He handed me the pill bottle that had been sitting on the nightstand, where the clock next to it read a little past 11 p.m.
"I'll get you some water," he said lifting himself from the chair, voice still gravelly from sleep.
He returned from the bathroom shortly, with a small plastic cup in his hand. I got an unsettling feeling of Déjà vu as I was reminded of the similar scenario from the night before.
He's caring again...I thought, just as perturbed as I was 24 hours ago.
"Here." He was a little less chivalrous when he shoved the cup to my face.
I glared at him as I took the water from his hand and popped the pill in my mouth to wash down it's chalky flavor.
"Do I need to carry you next door," he asked flatly, and I nearly spat the water right back out.
"I hit my head, Shizu-chan, not lost my legs," I choked out raspily.
I set the cup down and swung said intact legs over the side of the bed, careful about my first step. The last thing I needed was for the idiot to catch me if I fell again.
"You can stay here if you want," I said nonchalantly, "it isn't necessary for you to attend to me anymore. You've done quite enough already." I waved him away, picking up my pill bottle and the ice pack I had thrown, slowly making my way towards the door. I let it swing behind me, hoping it would give the blonde a taste of his own medicine, but I remembered that it'd probably just split in half if it hit him.
"I don't trust you to be alone," I heard him say behind me.
I stopped in the middle of the hallway to turn and give him the only look I was capable of expressing at the moment; complete and utter loathing. He however, stood his ground. Poorly, at that.
"Someone's gotta look out for your sorry ass." He offered, and blinked in surprise, as if he were only just processing his words for the first time.
I rolled my eyes and continued to let myself in our room. As if you ever think about what comes out of that mouth of yours...
Immediately, I laid down on my bed and placed the still cold pack over my tired eyes again. On the bright side, I had regained some feeling back in my face, only, it was more pain brought by more throbbing of the swollen nodule. At the very least, I could feel the pain killers starting to quickly take effect.
"Fine. If you stay here, make yourself useful and turn off the lights, then." I instructed, waving to the general direction of the switch with my eyes still closed.
He did so, but not even a full minute had passed and I felt him sit on the bed next to me.
"Can I ask you something?"
Irritably, I uncovered one of my eyes and looked at him with a deadpan expression. "What?" I asked exaggeratedly, not at all wanting to engage in another round of pointless conversation.
He ignored my vexation, however, and continued with his question. "Do you ever have like...weird dreams?" he whispered hesitantly, as if he were still noncommittal to wanting to share the inquisition.
I really hadn't expected him to ask such a thing. He really did pick the worst times to be more intriguing. I let the fire of irritation simmer before I answered him, picking my words carefully.
"I don't usually have dreams, Shizu-chan. Why do you ask?" I stated as plainly as possible to not let my enticement show.
There was a pause before he spoke. "Nevermind," he said hurriedly as he was getting up.
"Then why do you keep bringing it up," I droned, but more of a statement than a real question I expected an answer to, but I found myself wanting him to continue.
"I was just..." He took a second to think about his word choice. "I was hoping I had someone I could relate to," he confessed more softly, as he got into bed.
Perplexed at his honesty, I responded with less malice than I originally intended. "I see...I'm not exactly the most similar person to you, thankfully."
He made a quiet sort of hum in satisfaction, despite my dejection.
"Actually, I think we're more alike than you think."
I held my ice pack in place as I sat up to look over at his bed in the dark room, more intrigued now by his sudden confidence. "How so?"
He propped himself up on his elbow to mimic my same position. "We've both always felt the same way about each other. That's one thing."
"And what exactly is this mutual feeling you speak of?" I played along sarcastically.
He paused again, looking down at the floor as he thought. "I was hoping you'd tell me."
"Well it's obvious, isn't it? I hate you and you hate me," I responded naturally, as if someone had asked me if the sky was blue.
"Do you really?" he asked in a more firm, serious tone.
I wanted to say 'yes' immediately, but bit my tongue. Something had suspiciously seemed off when I said it...
"Or are you still trying to convince yourself that?" His tone wasn't mocking, no, more knowing if anything, as if he had expected me to answer that way all along.
It was true, I did admit that I didn't feel such strong hatred toward him as I used to at the very moment...
Then what?
"Because I don't think I hate you...Not anymore."
I had to catch my breath. Was he really saying that? After these past three, long years in high school together, believing he despised me when he was throwing things like street signs and convenience store trash cans at me; screaming my name at the top of his lungs, calling out my demise...Only to then make us roommates for a little over a week and this happens?!
"...Why do you say that?" It was all I could croak out. I had to swallow the dryness of my throat, as if I had been sucked dry of any backhanded response I could've come up with.
"Because it's true. I'm tired of hating you," he confessed again, "and I think you've started feeling the same way, am I right?"
Could I really stop hating him? Did the world seriously stop spinning? Had Hell finally frozen over?
"I suppose it is pointless," I said briskly, not commending him for realizing the matter first. "We haven't really gotten far otherwise though, what did you expect?"
"I don't know. Maybe we could try something else?"
The conversation was transitioning a little too quickly for my liking. I hadn't had time to prepare for something so preposterous.
"Such as?" It came out as a whisper because I was already preparing myself for the worst.
"I dunno, maybe we could try getting along more, to start?"
It hadn't stung nearly as bad being worded that way, but just to confirm...
"Like...become friends? Is that what you're suggesting?" My tongue tasted metallic as I let the taboo word slip. My blood had turned hot and I found myself unable to meet his gaze.
"If you wanna do that...I wouldn't want to force anything on yo...to you!" he quickly tried catching himself before he made any more personal confessions. "Ah, wait, maybe I shouldn't have worded it like that. Ah, fuck. Dammit."
I blinked in surprise, tuning out the rest of his curses. If it weren't for the cold pack pressing against my face right then, I felt like my face might have just burnt off completely.
Rationally, I went over the pros and cons of what he was suggesting in my head, as unbelievable as it was. Entertaining the idea that our prior relationship really wasn't getting us anywhere, I considered the possibility that it would, in fact, be interesting to see how things went between us with a new approach.
The only problem was, what was the benefit from it?
"...Fine," I agreed hesitantly. "But I'm not changing myself for you, Shizu-chan, we aren't equals. If we're going to be 'friends', you'll have accept the fact that I'm a deity compared to likes of you," I boasted, but relaxed the tiniest bit when the condescending playful lilt returned to my usual to my tone.
I could feel him rolling his eyes from across the room. "You are nothing even close to being a god, or anything holy for that matter," he scoffed, but there was no venom behind his words. He had grown more used to the idea of us speaking casually...more or less.
"And you're nowhere near being considered a human," I gave him a disappointed smile in condolence.
With that, he rolled over to face away from me. "Go to bed flea. Whatever drugs Shinra's smuggled in is working too much," mumbled over his shoulder.
I wanted to tease him more, now that my irritation had somewhat subsided. It was true, I was drowsy, but my mind didn't want to shut off just yet.
"Ne, Shizu-chan."
"What?" he sighed as if I had ruined a perfectly good ten second nap.
"I'm not in my pajamas yet, I need to change."
"Good for fucking you," he said apathetically, back still turned to me.
"It seems my painkillers are making my muscles more lethargic. Be a doll and get them for me, would you~?" I cooed more playfully, now that we were 'friends'.
He groaned and rolled over to shoot me an 'are-you-kidding-me?' look.
"Hey, you're still wearing your clothes from today, too. Unlike you, I actually care about my hygiene."
With another heavy sigh and some grumble of complaint, he complied, walking over to the closet. He came back out, tossing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts my way, and even though I had my arm specifically outstretched to catch them, he aimed the ball of fabric at my face. I let it slide, and watched him grab some of his own clothes from the dresser drawer as he headed to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
I set my ice pack down on the nightstand, taking the opportunity to change in the only few moments of privacy I would get. I sat up to shimmy out of my jeans and slide on my favourite pair of polyester shorts in their place. I picked up my shirt, but the slowly working paralysis of the drugs caused it to slip from my grasp, falling to the floor. What I would normally set aside as a minor inconvenience, I found myself letting out an irritable groan as I bent over to pick it up.
Instantly, I felt all the blood rush to my head, sending a nauseating wave of dizziness to my blur vision. I grabbed my head to stop it from spinning, but lost my balance and allowed my knees to catch me as I hit the floor.
I practiced taking in deep breaths, but everything around me was fuzzy and my ears were ringing. All I could hear was the loud thrum of my heartbeat racing aggressively in my cranium.
"Flea?" I heard, muffled behind the clogginess of my hearing. "Where'd you—" he cut off as soon as he found me on the ground between the two beds. He knelt down beside me and put a hand tentatively on my shoulder to keep me steady. "What's wrong?" he asked, unmistakably sounding genuinely worried.
"I just feel...really dizzy...all of the sudden," I said between pants, still holding my head in both hands.
"You need to lay down again. Can you stand?"
"I think—"
He didn't hesitate to let me finish my sentence before he took initiative to stand behind me, lock his hands under my arms, and effortlessly pick me up to set me back on the safety of the mattress. He sat next to me, his arm still wrapped around my shoulders to keep me secure from falling again. I couldn't help but lean into him for support.
He didn't protest, in fact, he brought me closer to his body. I could feel the heat radiating from under his clean shirt as he held me close for a few minutes, silently waiting for my head to clear. When I felt like I was ready, I slowly pushed myself away and his arm dropped loosely from my shoulder, but found a new comfortable spot wrapping around my waist.
"I'm okay now," I breathed a sigh of relief, but I was still feeling the prickliness of his touch.
"What even happened?" he asked in his low, husky voice, still sounding slightly concerned.
I looked down on the floor and gently kicked my fallen shirt. He put two and two together and bent down to pick it up, handed it to me, but to my surprise, made no attempt to mock my lack of efficiency for simple tasks.
My limbs felt so heavy and exhausted, I felt like at this point, it was meaningless to try to exert any more effort to finish dressing myself. I desperately needed sleep. It was all I could do to manage keeping my eyes open to stare blankly at the ball of fabric wrapped in my hands.
"It's not going to put it on itself," he stated, and I unnecessarily took it as a challenge.
I looked beside me and gave him my best to scowl, but it was difficult to do with eyes that were drooping more and more with each blink. I heaved another sigh, grabbing the hem of my shirt to pull it over.
"Do you mind?" I could no longer control the languid slur of my words as I addressed him.
He simply rolled his eyes and turned away to give me privacy, even though our bodies still brushed closely together.
The struggle continued as I attempted to raise the clothing up far enough to slip out of it, but my arms would make it about halfway before giving out on me.
"Do you need help?" he asked awkwardly with his back still turned to me. It sounded as if he pitied me and could no longer stand the idea of me fumbling at what should be a laborless process.
I tensed, feeling myself grow hot, as if the blood that had just drained rose to my cheeks once again. "T-That's not necessary..." I said with certainty, but there was shakiness in my breath.
To him it didn't matter, and he turned around to face me looking more than just a little skeptical. The expression I wore was one unamused, but I could feel my face reddening on the spot.
He moved to situate himself closer behind me until his outer thigh was pressed against the small of my back. As I felt him grab the sides of my shirt, he shocked me accidentally, causing me to flinch.
"Ah, sorry about that," he mumbled the small apology, and the heat of his breath ghosted the back of my neck.
I had goosebumps and I knew he could tell, but my voice remained steady when I told him it was fine, and to hurry up already; all of which was a complete lie for many reasons.
He slowly peeled the shirt away from my skin, his fingertips brushing against my ribs making me suck in a sharp breath. He paused about halfway, the shirt bunching in the pits of my arms. I felt my heart skip a beat as his hands barely touched my bare skin.
"Does it hurt?" he whispered in a hushed voice, right behind my ear, causing the hairs on my neck to stand on end.
The knot in my stomach tightened and I felt certain places on my body growing more sensitive than they had any right to be. If he had any sort of intelligence, I'd assume he was doing it on purpose, but I honestly believe he was clueless to the more than accommodating positions of our bodies and how his voice sounded like velvet in my ears.
I had enough composure to shake my head slowly to signal for him to continue. I didn't trust my own voice to speak at the moment which was a feeling I did not like.
I slipped my arms through the sleeves and he was cautious to pull it over my head, not to bump the injury. I let out another shaky breath, thinking to myself that the ordeal was half over, and soon I wou l'd be under the safety and comfort of my sheets alone, without the brute touching me so gently—
But as I thought of just that, large palms found their way to the blades of my shoulders and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"Sh-Shizu-chan…" I murmured in uncertainty as I felt curious hands wander along the width of my back. "What are you…?"
"You have bruises all over your back…" The softness in his tone made me think he wasn't just acknowledging the fact. However, the gravelliness of his voice when he was tired sent a shudder down my spine straight to my groin, especially while his tender fingers caressed my flesh to examine it with more precision.
"Well," I said airily. "That's what happens when your roommate is a wild animal who likes to throw people against hard surfaces," I tried to sound as matter-of-factually as possible, but the innuendo came out as more of a whisper.
"Hm," he hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe if my roommate wasn't such an annoying parasite, I wouldn't have to."
"I don't know what you're talking about—"
The grip on my shoulders trailed slowly down to my waist, holding me more firmly by the hips. My heart was nearly beating out of my ribcage and I was subconsciously worrying about if he could feel my pulse through his palms.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Izaya."
My breath hitched at my name, which rolled off his tongue more naturally and seductively than it ever had. My insides were squirming in protest and all I could do was fidget uncomfortably under the weight of his hands that snaked around my sides.
"Shizu-chan! What are you—?!"
"Shhh…" he shushed me, feeling the softness of his hair as he nuzzled into my shoulder blade to embrace me. "Just let me try something."
I swallowed the hard lump that had formed in the dryness of my throat. His breath was hot against my bare skin as he exhaled shakily. Sweat was beading at my hairline and I could feel a dampness spreading all throughout the rest of my body.
The bareness of his arms around my abdomen, I told myself, wasn't real. The warmth his skin produced definitely didn't feel as it was scorching my own, and it was most certainly not a feeling of comfort, nor anything I had ever desired. No, of course not.
"Sorry about hitting you in the face...again," he breathed. I could feel his words reverberating against my spinal cord as he spoke, "—and for all of these…"
I took a quick intake when the delicate touch of one of his fingers traced a circular pattern around a spot I didn't have to see to know it was decorated by a dark blemish. I was so used to the consistently dull ache that spread through the muscles of my back, I let it go unnoticed most days. It wasn't like there was someone to constantly point out all the scrapes and bruises I got from being chased through the city, be it by thugs or by Shizu-chan, I had taken many a fall on our escapades.
That wasn't to say that I was ungraceful, however. I took quite a lot of pride in my nimble body and quick speed that I had trained for over the years, even before we met.
In a situation like this though, I would take a hundred scratches and falls to escape the sympathetic caressing of untrained hands. Hands that I knew were solely for fighting, for breaking and for hurting.
"Flea…" It was barely an audible whisper in the crook of my neck. "Sleep…"
I was pulled closer into his chest suddenly before I could prepare myself as we fell back onto the mattress. I was at least thankful for the downy pillows that cushioned our landing.
"Are you serious?!" I hissed, baffled when he hugged me tighter into a spooning position. My heart was racing as the heat that rose to my cheeks once again.
"'m tired," he breathed, too close for comfort.
"So am I, but you have your own bed!" I protested, but I knew it was for naught as I tried to squirm out of the barricade of strong arms.
"'dun feel like it," he mumbled again with his nose buried into my hair.
I huffed an agitated sigh, knowing that it was pointless to exert unnecessary energy trying to escape from the unyielding embrace. At the very least, I managed to settle in, finding a comfortable enough spot between the array of pillows and the hold of Shizuo's limbs caged around me. It didn't take long before drowsiness took over, and I didn't bother with pulling up the covers because I was already satisfyingly warm.